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Appendix B Typical Temperance Addresses By Ellen G. White
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to use common fire, these priests, when they went in before God,
presumed to kindle their incense with unconsecrated fire. The priests
had been indulging in the use of wine, and their moral sensibilities
were benumbed; they did not discern the character of their actions,
or realize what would be the fearful consequences of their sin. A
fire blazed out from the holy of holies and consumed them.
After the destruction of Nadab and Abihu, the Lord spoke to
Aaron, saying: “Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy
sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation,
lest ye die: it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations:
and that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and be-
tween unclean and clean; and that ye may teach the children of Israel
all the statutes which the Lord hath spoken unto them by the hand
of Moses.” The priests and judges of Israel were to be men of strict
temperance, that their minds might be clear to discriminate between
right and wrong, that they might possess firmness of principle, and
wisdom to administer justice and to show mercy.
If Men Were Strictly Temperate
—What an improvement
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would there be in our own land if these injunctions were carried
out, if men in sacred and judicial positions should live by every
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Does not God, who
made man, know what is best for him, what is most conducive to his
spiritual and eternal interests? God is working for the highest good
of His creatures. If men were strictly temperate, we should not have
a tithe of the deaths we now have, and physical and mental suffering
would be greatly diminished. There would be far fewer accidents
by land and sea. It is because man will do as he pleases, instead of
submitting to God’s requirement, that so much evil is in the world.
God has given us laws whereby to live, but now, as in the Noachic
age, the imagination of men’s hearts is evil and only evil continually;
men walk after the desire and devices of their own hearts, and so
accomplish their own ruin. God would have men stand in their
God-given manhood, free from the slavery of appetite.
How can men trust the decisions of jurors who are addicted
to the use of liquor and tobacco? If they are called to decide on
an important case when deprived of their accustomed stimulants,
they cannot exercise their minds in a healthful way; they are in no